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All through the winter months you have been making plans to completely landscape your backyard giving your home a brand new look as soon as the better weather arrives and you have this picture in your mind as to exactly how it will look when all the work is completed and you are relaxing in your new garden. The lawn will be a rich green and freshly cut, and your dog will be comfortable in his new doghouse surrounded by the flowers and shrubs blooming in many splendid colors. A leaf drops from the oleander bush into the dog’s water bowl and gently floats along the surface of the water. You may well be thinking how tranquil, serene and safe this setting is - but you would be so wrong!

Although this vision you are seeing may seem like perfection it is potentially fatal for your dog. One little sip from the bowl with the floating leaf and your dog could be dead in less than an hour. There are coming up to a thousand different plant species which are poisonous for household pets and this figure is just for North America alone.

On several occasions when a pet is taken to the vets due to an unexplained sickness, the vet will reveal that the dog has been poisoned and the owner will automatically think that someone else has tried to poison their dog, when all along it is probably their own fault. At least 95% of visits to the vet with an animal suffering sickness are as a result of the owner unknowingly poisoning their dog by the products of their garden such as bulbs of hyacinth and daffodils and other common plants which are deadly for animals.

Many dogs love to dig and when they unearth a bulb, chew and swallow it, it can turn out to be lethal. There are so many other popular plants which are poisonous such as the Star-of-Bethlehem, Glory Lilies and Autumn crocus plants and although they look great in your home or garden, for a pup they clearly spell death. So bear in mind a garden full of black eyed Susan, sweet peas, bleeding heart, golden glow, lantana and cornflower which is shared with a dog is sure to bring danger. Even the beautiful plant we nearly all have at Christmas time, the poinsettia, can be dangerous not only to animals but to children too if just one leaf is chewed up and digested.